This Transgender Teen Took a Selfie in Target's Bathroom and It Went Viral

All in the name of equality.

Bathroom selfies are taking on a whole new meaning lately. With anti-trans bills popping up across the country, many focused on which bathroom transgender people use, the selfies that were once just silly snaps are now becoming a little more political.

When Mason Perkins snapped a photo of himself in a Target bathroom, it wasn’t because his eyebrows were on point that day. Target recently declared that all stores will allow transgender people to use the bathroom that fits their gender identity. While it sounds like a no-brainer, the move was a reaction to a North Carolina bill that mandates transgender people use the bathroom that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

With so much discussion around where transgender people are allowed to use the bathroom, Mic reports that Mason, a 19-year-old transgender man, was quick to take a bathroom selfie at Target because he was so happy to feel accepted. Typically, Mason told Mic, public restrooms are an uncomfortable place for him.

"I usually go into the male one but I have to kind of hide my face," he said.

In the caption of his now-viral photo, Mason dispels the crazy fears that proponents of the transgender bathroom bills have based their arguments on.

"SHOUT OUT TO TARGET for letting me get up close and personal with their toilets, really enjoyed it, raped a total of zero children while pissing it was great 10/10 would piss again,” the caption says.
He’s referring to the arguments that claim allowing transgender people into the bathrooms of their choice will allow them to sexually assault young children or women, even though there are no known cases of such attacks.

Mason told Mic that the purpose of the photo was to spread awareness that transgender people are just like everyone else. Other transgender people have also snapped photos in bathrooms to document that they just want to pee in peace. Sarah McBride’s photo also went viral after she, a transgender woman, took a picture in a North Carolina women’s room — now a prohibited space for her.

“HB 2 (the bathroom bill) is legislative bullying, plain and simple,” Sarah McBride told Teen Vogue. “They are doing it with demonstrably false claims that stoke unfounded fears around protecting transgender people in bathrooms. HB 2 is the worst kind of bigotry and is hurting real people.”

Mason and Sarah are right. There's no reason transgender people shouldn't be allowed to pee in whatever bathroom they choose because regardless of being transgender or cisgender, we are all people.